1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a system for controlling and monitoring a process performed by one or more actors defined by roles, wherein the process is associated with a complex object, e.g., a document, in which constituent objects, e.g., chapters, can be distinguished.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A system for monitoring a process according to a related art is known from Sarin et al., “A Process Model and System for Supporting Collaborative Work”, SIGOIS bulletin, Feb. 2/3, 1991, p. 213–224. This system supports the definition, execution, monitoring, and dynamic modification of organizational processes, and is implemented as an object-oriented network service.
The known system above can only process a complex object by dividing it into many small objects. Choosing an appropriate granularity is left to the user. Sarin suggests decomposing the complex object into as many smaller objects as possible, to increase the fineness of concurrency. This would, however, impose a burden on the system, as it would have to maintain state information about many small objects.